Art of drying macaroni



Sept. 1, 1925.

C. T. GARNSEY ART OF DRYING MACARONI Filed Oct. 29, 1925 m\\ :b. 1. @iip lbiitbi:

m O o o 0 0 o I 67207163 I Gar/25654 J /(Q /7 7 922 Patented Sept. 1,1925.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

CHARLES T. GARNSEY, OF JOLIET, ILLINOIS, ASSIGNOR T JOLIET MACARONI 00.,OF

JULIET, ILLINOIS, A CORPORATION OF DELAVFARE.

ART OF DRYING MACARON I.

.Appiication filed October 29, 1923.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, CHARLES T. GARlflSEY, a citizen of the UnitedStates, residing in 4 the city of J oliet, county of Will, and State 5of Illinois, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in theArt of Drying Macaroni, of which the following is a specification.

My invention relates to improvements'in the art of drying macaroni,which term I employ in a generic sense as including not only ordinary.macaroni sold in the form of sticks or elbows, but also any analogousfood stock-made from flour and water, for exam- 1 ple, noodles,spaghetti or vermicelli. The

particular details of the invention, however,

are of especial value in connection with the drying of ordinary macaroniand particularly that of the elbow type.

The object of the invention isto provide an improved sanitary processand apparatus for rapidly and economicallyefiectlng the drying of thegoods subsequent to the formation thereof, while producing a superior 2article which shall not be baked or chalky or have other undesirablecharacteristics.

In the drawings which illustrate in a somewhat diagrammatic manner oneform ofisuch apparatus: as applied to the drying of elbow goods,

Fig. 1 is a side elevation of the progressive dryelr for effecting theinitialdrying of the '00 s.

Fig. 2 is an enlargement of a portion of Fig. 1.

ig. 3 is a front elevation of a portion of one of the agitators, and,

.Fig. 1 is an elevation, partly broken out,

of one .of the cabinets for completing the 40 drying.

In making the better class of goods of this character, it has heretoforebeen customary to remove the majorit of the moisture to be removed, andto comp etc the drying, in cabinets provided with superposed trays withperforated bottoms in which the goods are contained, air beingcirculated through the cabinets inorder to remove the moisture.

- With this systemit has been customary, so

far as I am advised, to place the goods in the tra s in a practicallywet or very soft conditlon, so that it was necessary to stir or agitatethe goods ,in the trays at frequent inter- Serial No. 871,291.

vals, as often as hourly in order to prevent the goods from stickingtogether or caki'ng. In view of the fact that the cabinet stage ofdrying ordinarily required many hours, it will readily be understoodthat the expense of the ordinary process is quite considerable.

After making. exteqsive testsaand experiments, I have determined thatagitation of the goods in the cabinet stage of the drying is notessential, provided that the cabinet drying is carried on at the properrate and provided further that before the goods are placed in thecabinet a sufiicient percentage of the removable moisture has beeneliminated in a preliminary drying stage;

I have also determined that in order to re move the required percentageof moisture from the freshly ressed goods in order to permit of the finadrying stage in the cabinets to be carried on without agitation, it isadvisable, from the standpoint of economy to perform the preliminarydrying step at a progressively descending rate. These various theoriesor discoveries have been applied by me in the development of apparatusfor drying elbow macaroni, which will now be described.

Referring to the drawings, 10 re resents a continuous stream or showerof t e elbows:-

as they are delivered from the presses on which they are formed. Fromthe sloping apron 11, or other suitable distributing device, the goodsare deposited in a.substantially uniform layer on a constantly travelingbelt 12. Preferably the thickness of such layer is such that if thegoods were perfectly distributed, the layer would be one .stick inthickness. Said belt 12 may be four feet or more in width and ispreferably made of the belt 12 there is a second belt 16 of simi-' 17and furthermore are set slightly staggered relative to belts 12 and 17respectively so that. the droppings from belt 12 are received by belt16, the droppings from belt 16 are received by belt 17, and thedroppings the conveyor belt 12 at relatively high speed for example 17feet per minute, said shaft 19 driving belt 17 at about 4 feet a minute.while cross belts 22 and 23 drive the belts l6 and 18 in the reversedirection at approximately 8 and 2 feet per minute respectively. All ofsaid belts are mounted in a chamber in which the atmosphere isordinarily'maintained about 100 F. or possibly somewhat higher, undercertain atmospheric conditions. The air'in'said chamber is constantlycirculated by fans or other suitable devices.

It will be observed that the movement of the goods is progressivelyretarded as the drying continues until, when the goods are belng carriedon belt 18 they are moving at approximately one-fourth of the speed ofbelt 12. All of said belts being of the same width, this results in aprogressive piling up or thickening of the layer so that the layer ofgoods on belt 18 is four times as thick as the layer of goods on thefirst belt 12. This results in a progressive retarding of the rate ofdrying as the goods descend from one belt to the next for the reasonthat there is a relatively less percentage of the surface of the goodsexposed to the air which is being circulated.

It will be observed that the goods are agitated or stirred up and freshsurfaces are exposed to the air whenever they are trans ferredby gravityfrom an upper belt to a lower belt 0 the series, and in the case of therelativel -thin layers of goods on the two upper belts, this isordinarily all the agitation and stirring which is required in order toprevent the oods from marking or sticking together. owever, in the'caseof the lower two belts of the series, where the layer of goods is ofconsiderable thickness, and where because of the relatively slowertravel, the goods would otherwise remain in one position on the belt fora considerable period before dropping therefrom, it is advisable toinstall additional or auxiliary stirrers or agitators, for instance asindicated at 24, 25 and 26. Each of said stirrers 24, 25 and 26comprises a stout rod or shaft 27 having set therein in spiral osition aseries of comb fingers or rake teet as at 28.

Preferablyeach of the rake shafts 27 is located immediately above one ofthe supporting rollers 29, the bracket supporting roller 29 beingpreferably mounted in such a manner as to be vertically adjustable.

The shafts 27 which carry the agitator 1,551,srs

teeth 28 are preferably driven in a direction contrary to that in whichthe belts travel, thereby securing a more eflicient agitation.

The goods upon dropping off the end of the final or lowest belt 18 arereceived in trays as indicated at 30, each of said trays having a Wiremesh bottom 31 and imperforate sides so that it will fit into a dryingcabinet such as indicated in Fig.4. Said drying cabinet, in the presentinstance, comprises a rack of four tiers of trays, the portion of thecabinet beneath said trays being divided by a partition 32 having acircular aperture 33 for receiving the impeller of a reversiblecirculating fan 34. Suitable arrangements are provided for heating theair circulated by said fan 34, which is reversed every hour or so, inorder to effect proper distribution of the drying air. It will beunderstood that suitable vents for the moist air and openings for thedry air may be provided in order to prevent air in said cabinet frombecoming too saturated. This also applies to the air which is circulatedaround and between the belts for effecting the preliminary drying step.In the particular installation herein described, the preliminar beltdrying requires a period of approxlto 15 hours. Agitation of the goodsin the cabinets is not essential, when the preliminary drying has beenproperly efi'ected and when the final stage of drying is carried on atthe proper rate.

My improvements and tests indicate that in order to eliminate thenecessity of stirring the goods in the trays of the cabinets, it isadvisable to remove not less than 25% of the total removable moisture.As to the rate of drying in the preliminary belt stage of the process, Ifind it advisable not to attempt to remove more than 50% of theremovable moisture within the first hour. If dried rapidly, the goodsare inclined to bake or become chalky. However, for the sake of economy,it is desirable to effect the drying at such a rate that. at least 25%of the removable moisture may be eliminated within two hours.

The described details of construction and operation being illustrativeof one phase only ofmy invention, the scope of same should be determinedby reference to the appended cl ims, said claims being construed asbroadly state of'the art.

I claim as my invention:

1.- The improvement in the art of drying s possible, consistent with thefreshly formed goods in a thin layer, efiectin movement of said layer incontact with a drying atmosphere while pro ressively reducing the rateof drying'an completin the drying by subjecting the partly drie materialto the drying action of an atmosphere at alower temperature than that atwhich the first stage of the drying, was effected.

' 2. The improvement in the art of drying macaroni which consists indepositing the freshly formed goodsin a thinlayer, effecting movement ofsaid layer in contact with a drying atmosphere while progressivelyreducing the rate of drying, agitating the goods during such movementand finally com leting the drying by subjecting the part y driedmaterial to the drying action of an atmosphere at a lower temperature 1than that at which the first stage of the dryin was efiected. I

3. The improvement in the art of drying macaroni which consists indepositing the freshly formed goods in a. thin layer, and efl'ecting.movement of said layer in contact with a warm drying atmosphere while-pro gressi'vely reducing the speed of travel of said la .er, therebincreasing the thicknessof sai layer an thus retarding the rateof dring.

4. The im rovement in the art of drying macaroni w ich consists indepositing the freshly formed goods in a thin layer, and effectingmovement of said layer in contact with a warm drying atmosphere whileprogressively reducing the speed of travel of said layer, therebyincreasin the thickness of said layer andthus retar ing the rate ofdrying while agitating the goods during said speedreductiom 5. Theimprovement in the art of drying macaroni w ich consists in depositingthe freshlyformed goods in a thin layer, effecting movement of saidlayer in contact with a warm drying atmospher'e'while progressivelyreducing the speed of travel of said layer, thereby increasing thethickness of said layer and thus retarding'the rate of drying whileagitating the goods during said speed reduction and completing the greengoods for at least thirty minutes to a atmosphere at a temperature highto remove at least twenty-five percent of the removable moisture withintwo hours, agitating the goods during the said treatment andsubsequently continuing the drying drying at such temperature .and undersuch conditions that the rate of evaporation is reduced to lessthan'one-half of the initial rate. a a a 7. The improvement in the artof drying macaroni which consists in exposing the green goods to adrying atmos here at a temperature at least high enoug to be capable ofremoving at least twenty-five percent of the removable moisture withintwo hours, and until at least twenty-five percent 'of the totalremovable moisture is extracted, agitating the said goods during thesaid treatment and subsequently contmuing the drying at a rate of lessthan one-third of the initial-rate.

8. The improvement in the art of drying macaroni which consists indepositing the freshly-formed goods in a thin layer, efi'ecting movementof said'g'oods in contact with a drying atmosphere at a temperature highenough to remove at least twenty-five percent of the total removablemoisture within two hours and until at least twenty-five percent of thetotal removable moisture is removed, while progressively reducin thespeed of travel of said layer and there y increasing the thickness ofsaid layer and thus reducing the rate of drying, while agitatin thegoodsduring said speed reductlon an completing the drying b subjecting thepreliminary dried materia to the drying action of an atmosphere at alower t empera---

